


The woman you need

by wendywhite13



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Talking, Team Talon (Overwatch), conversations on a rooftop, sombra backstory, they're in love they just don't know it yet, what we have here is a failure to communicate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 07:18:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15067994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wendywhite13/pseuds/wendywhite13
Summary: Sombra's clumsy attempts to flirt with Widowmaker cause tension between the two of them. Widowmaker experiences some uncomfortable emotions.





	1. Chapter 1

Amelie hit the roof tiles hard, the impact shaking up through her legs and spine. A quiet part of her mind knew the landing was more than her legs could bare, wondered what was broken, admonished her for her carelessness. But she felt nothing-no pain, no fear. It was impossible to tell what the injuries were. All she felt was the drumbeat in her head, return to Talon, return to Talon, complete your mission…  
She released her grappling hook and folded it up. Amelie had a job to do, and she had to get moving. But as she reeled the hook in, a voice cut through the darkness.  
“I though spiders were supposed to be graceful. That was more like a frog jump.” Amelie sighed, tracking the smug voice back to its source. Sombra stood in the darkness of the roof, watching her, arms crossed and a crooked smile on her face.  
“I thought you went on ahead,” Amelie didn’t look her in the eye. Sombra had been watching her far too often lately, and she felt a twinge of irritation that the rude little hacker had seen her fall. If footage of that slip-up showed up online, Amelie might finally have a valid reason to punch her.  
Return to Talon, return to Talon…  
“Weeeeell,” Sombra drew out the word, skipping closer to Amelie and trailing her long fingers with their glowing purple nails on Amelie’s shoulder. “I…thought you might take this route back, so I just waited here.” She gave an innocent smile, but it seemed to stab at Amelie. The idea that Sombra could just…decide. Could just stand here and wait, like no one was calling her. She didn’t hear the drumbeat in her head, the desperate need to finish the mission, Talon’s little gift to its favorite soldier. Sometimes Amelie forgot that there were other ways to live.  
“We were told to return to base. You should leave.” Amelie’s words came out harsher than she had intended, and Sombra’s face suddenly dropped. She only missed a beat, though. Her struck expression quickly corrected to a teasing pout.  
“Come on, miss Spider,” she whined. “It’s a beautiful night. The breeze, the stars…don’t tell me you’d rather be hiding out in some dank little Talon safe house.” She turned her back on Amelie, looking out on the city spread out under the moonlight and raising her arms. “Look at this view! And it’s only us to see it.”  
Sombra darted back, grabbing Amelie’s arm with one glowing hand. “Just come over and take a look! You’ll love it-“  
“We don’t have time! We have obligations!” The drumbeat roared in Amelie’s head and her sense of irritation grew. Sombra was always doing things like this, shirking the rules, going off on her own, pulling Amelie in…  
…always wanting Amelie’s time and attention, always trying to distract her, always…  
That thought led to uncomfortable places, impossible places, like Sombra’s hand tugging incessantly on her arm, pulling her over to the edge. Sombra’s voice continued on, oblivious to Amelie’s growing frustration. “Come ooonn, Spider, it’s just for a bit, just some fun-“  
“I don’t fucking want to!” The words ripped out of Amelie’s mouth and surprised her just as much as Sombra. With a strong jerk, she tore her arm out of Sombra’s grasp, setting the smaller woman backpedaling, wheeling towards the edge of the building. She teetered on the edge, yelping in fear as her shoes slipped on the tiles. Amelie gasped in horror, bile rising to her throat, but Sombra caught herself just in time. A sigh of relief almost escaped Amelie when Sombra raised her head. Any trace of her jesting smile was gone, replaced by a look of shock and betrayal that made a strange, uncomfortable feeling rise in Amelie’s chest. How many times had she scowled at that smile? Wished she could wipe it off the woman’s face? Now it was gone, and something inside Amelie felt as though it had been torn. She didn’t even realize that the ever-present drumbeat of Talon’s orders had gone silent.  
“I…Sombra, I…” for once, Amelie had no idea what to say. But at the sound of her words, Sombra turned around and sat down heavily on the edge of the building, short legs dangling off the side, head in hands.  
It had been a long time since Amelie had felt like this. Not since that time in Chateau Guillard, standing over Gerard’s bloody corpse, Talon’s drumbeat singing in her head. She had eventually made it back to her drop point, sobbing and shaking, and Talon’s doctor looked at her critically. They’d started in with more procedures, more brainwashing sessions, and Amelie stopped feeling anything at all.  
But now she struggled for words, and couldn’t seem to suppress a rising feeling of guilt. She remembered the look frozen on Gerard’s dead face, shock and confusion and betrayal, and thought she might understand why. She’d done it again, hurt someone who...loved her. Amelie sighed, looking down at the roof tiles for a long while.  
“I’m not an idiot Sombra,” said Amelie, breaking the silence in a soft voice. “I know…what you want from me.” Sombra was motionless on the edge, back still turned to Amelie.  
“I can’t be…her.” Amelie’s voice was as emotionless as she could make it. “I can’t be the woman you want. She’s not me. I can’t…do this with you. This—” she gestured out at the cityscape below them. “It means nothing to me. I understand what you want me too feel. That this is…romantic, or something. I don’t feel that. I don’t feel anything.”  
Sombra had still not moved. Amelie watched her for a moment, then turned away. “Find yourself a real girl, Sombra.”  
She had just pulled out her grappling hook, preparing for another jump, when Sombra’s voice called out again. It was different from before. The joking lightness had gone, and in its absence, her voice seemed small and sad.


	2. Chapter 2

“Romantic, huh? You think you’ve got me all figured out, Spider.” Amelie paused, and Sombra continued.  
“You know, the day the omnics attacked my city, I was home sick from school,” she still didn’t look at Amelie. “Had a fever. My folks couldn’t afford to stay off work with me that day, so I was home alone. Turned out, that saved me. My school, my parent’s office…all in the blast zone.”  
“Sombra, I never…” Amelie had no idea where this was going, but the fact that Sombra of all people was willingly sharing personal information worried her. But Sombra just kept talking.  
“I woke up to the sound of the army at the door. Looking for survivors. They tried to take me to the shelter, tried to tell me half the city was gone. But I didn’t believe them. I ran away, half-delirious from the fever and barely able to see in the smoke. Didn’t know where I was going. Ran through any door that was open. Only stopped when I realized I’d run up to the top of a parking garage. No where to go. And up there, I looked out over the city, trying to see my school or the office where my parents worked. And you know what I saw?”  
Amelie didn’t answer.  
“A crater. A big fucking crater, right over my whole life. Everyone I’d ever known. All my friends at school, my parents. And I realized that I had just been completely cut off from the rest of the world. Didn’t have any other family, didn’t know the neighbors. I should have died that day, and instead I was…alone. And it was such a strange feeling. I was looking down at the city and thinking that I really didn’t belong there anymore, I didn’t really belong anywhere anymore. And maybe that bothered me less than it should have.”  
“Why?” Amelie felt drawn to Sombra’s story, wondering what it had to do with her and Sombra on this rooftop now.  
“It wasn’t like I felt…above…other people. I mean, I know that I am better than most people, but that’s just natural talent,” Sombra turned a little towards Amelie at that, with a bit of a joking smile on her lips. “But it was like this…wall came down between me and everyone else. I was cut off from any kind of attachment, or…or responsibility.”  
Amelie chanced walking closer to the edge. “Didn’t you find that lonely?”  
A quick giggle escaped Sombra. “That’s a weird question from you, isn’t it?” Amelie grunted noncommittally. “Not too bad at first. It was super helpful, actually. I was an orphan in the middle of a war. I had to steal to survive, hurt people, even. But I didn’t really feel bad, didn’t really connect. It helped me stay aloof, and that’s helped me stay alive.”  
She paused. “But sometimes I do feel a little weird around other people. I’ve been doing this so long that it’s hard to connect now, even if I want to. It’s fun to tease people and joke around, but when things get serious…” she waved her hand dismissively. “I feel a lot more at home with my computers. Or…up here.”  
“And that’s when you showed up, Spider,” Sombra smiled at Amelie. “You…can’t connect either. So I never felt awkward around you, y’know? Spent more time with you than I usually spend around other people. And I kinda…got to like you. You’re intense, but I kinda like that. And you don’t judge me for what I can’t do.”  
“I never realized,” Amelie chose her words carefully. She didn’t know how she felt about this. Just a few minutes ago she’d been furious with Sombra, but seeing her like this had changed her opinion. Sombra’s trademark irreverence made sense now, and this new side of her—this quiet, thoughtful side—appealed to her. She set down her rifle and crouched down next to Sombra, swinging her legs over the edge.  
“You aren’t the perfect woman, Amelie, but, hey, neither am I,” Sombra smiled at her. Not her joking, crooked smile. This one, for once, looked genuine. “And you’re right, maybe you’re not the woman I want. Maybe neither of us can connect. That’s okay. But would it be so bad just to sit here with me for a while?”  
She reached across the space between them and squeezed Amelie’s cold hand. Sombra’s skin was warm and soft in hers, and her cybernetic attachments buzzed softly. Amelie was surprised to find it strangely comforting in the silence.  
“Maybe if we try hard, we can be the women we both need, y’know?” Sombra continued hopefully.  
Amelie looked out at the city lights. There was something alluring about it, she realized. There were millions of people down there, people she couldn’t understand or interact with, who confused and frustrated her. But up on the rooftop with Sombra, all that faded away. In her head, the drumbeat of Talon’s mental conditioning had quieted, replaced by the soft buzzing and clicking of Sombra’s onboard computer.  
And she smiled, just slightly, not the vicious predatory smile she usually wore, but a soft, hesitant smile.   
“Maybe,” she said at last.


End file.
